Dolly Parton: The Heart of Country Music, Celebrated for Her Songs and Unmatched Generosity

DOLLY PARTON was so very much more than a country music star.

She took on the worlds of music, business and philanthropy on her own terms.

, who died yesterday age 80, was always fiercely apolitical and adored by both political left and right.

A gay icon and a country legend who could play and the , she bridged every divide in life.

Her career was jaw-dropping. More than 100million record sales worldwide, 25 No1 singles in the Billboard country music charts (a record for a female artist), 44 top ten country albums, 110 singles in the charts — and she wrote more than 3,000 songs.

She won 11 and got nods for an , and .

Throughout her life, positivity shone through in all she did.

While Americans were being told to inject bleach to combat Covid, she quietly gave a million dollars to research a vaccine.

was vital in bringing quickly to a much-needed world.

In America and Britain, she helped bring millions of books into the homes of pre-school children.

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As great a businesswoman as she was a musician and philanthropist, she once refused demand to hand over half of the royalties for him singing one of her tunes.

Not giving up those rights to I Will Always Love You, sung by her and then , would make her tens of millions.

Last September, she cancelled her upcoming residency because of health concerns.

But in typical fashion she made a joke of it.

She said: “As many of you know, I have been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures.

“It must be for my 100,000-mile check-up — although it’s not my usual trip to see my plastic surgeon.

“And don’t worry about me quitin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet. But I believe He is telling me to slow down right now so I can be ready for more big adventures.”

Her god-daughter, the singer and former star , said of her second mother: “I wish everyone had the chance to meet Dolly Parton because she’s even better than your sparkliest dreams.

“She may be my fairy godmother, but she’s that to everyone.

“I am happy to share her with the world.”

Dolly’s positivity was infectious and her approach to life as honest as it was homely.

She said: “You have to work at being happy.

“Some people work at being miserable.

“If I wake up in the morning and don’t feel great or things are not great, I think what I can do to make things work better, rather than just falling into that hole.

“I try to be grateful for the things I have, thank God, and look for spiritual strength.”

Born in 1946, humble childhood could not have been any more country — home was a two-room log cabin with no electricity or running water in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern .

Dad Lee was a share cropper and his huge family — Dolly was the fourth of 12 children — slept three or four to a bed.

She described her family as “dirt poor,” and recalled how her father paid the doctor who delivered Dolly with a sack of cornmeal.

But she remembered that cabin — now lovingly recreated at her lavish Dollywood resort, also in Tennessee — as full of “faith, family, and music”.

When she died she was estimated to be worth up to £50MILLION but she never forgot her roots.

Mum Avie Lee Owens sang traditional folk ballads, including Welsh songs she learnt from her family who came from Conwy.

She said: “I’m like her, she always tried to find the good in everything, the fun.

“Even when things were at their worst, she tried to make light.

“I wake every day thinking, ‘Everything’s going to be fine’, and if it’s not I’m shocked and set about trying to get it to be right.

“She married at 15 and, by 35, had 12 children, but she was able to make every one of us feel like individuals.”

Dolly revealed last year she was working on a four-part documentary tracing her Welsh roots, which is due to be released later this year.

Her grandad was a violin player and Pentecostal preacher, and Dolly sang in church from age six.

She started writing songs before she knew how to read her first one — Little Tiny Tassle Top — at the age of five.

At age seven, she began playing the guitar and her uncle Bill Owens became her first songwriting partner — a team that would be long-lasting.

By ten, she was performing professionally, a regular singer and guitarist on local radio and TV shows including The Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour in Knoxville, Tennessee.

She recorded her first album aged 12 and the next year performed at the Mecca of country, the Grand Ole Opry, in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was introduced by .

She sang not one encore but three.

From a young age, Dolly knew her look — modelled on the “town tramp” who wore high heels and tight skirts.

Dolly recalled: “She was flamboyant.

“She had bright-red lipstick, long red fingernails.

“She had high-heeled shoes, little floating plastic goldfish in the heels, short skirts, low-cut tops, and I thought she was beautiful.

“When people would say, ‘She ain’t nothing but trash’, I would say, ‘Well, that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up.’”

Her dad and grandad both hated the way she dressed and they regularly punished her.

But she said: “I was willing to pay for it.

“I’m very sensitive, I didn’t like being disciplined, it hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped.

“But sometimes there’s that part of you that’s willing, if you want something bad enough, to go for it.”

That willpower showed when she became the first member of her family to graduate from high school, in 1964 while working hard to become a star at the same time.

She was determined not to struggle like her parents did.

She said: “ I did not want that for myself.

“My mom and my aunts, I grew up with women knowing how to be good mothers, but that was just not what I felt God had in mind for me.

“Somebody’s got to entertain those people, to write songs about them. I know what it’s like — I’ve seen it, been around it.

“There’s no thing foreign to me.

“I got the best of my dad and mom.

“It’s kept me as a businesswoman, knowing what I need to do, not just to get out and sing.”

The day after her graduation, aged 18, she set out for Nashville to start her music career.

When she stepped off that bus there, age 18, and just a day after finishing school, she started out on a career which would eclipse almost all others.

On that day in 1964. outside a launderette, she met — who would turn out to be the love of her life.

Carl, a paving contractor, stayed away from the spotlight but did say: “My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl’. My second was, ‘Lord, she’s good lookin’’ And that was the day my life began.”

Speaking decades later, was still full of love for her man.

She said: “I met him when I was 18, on my first day in Nashville.

“He comes driving by, sees me and says, he told me later, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry’. Sure enough, he did.

“He loves staying home and I love staying gone so it works out perfect.

“I am never away more than two weeks at a time unless overseas.

“He keeps the home fires burning while I bring home the bacon.

“It works fine.”

By 19, she had signed a songwriting deal with Combine Publishing, along with her uncle Bill.

Soon after came her first solo contract, with Monument Records.

But she was sold as a pop singer, which failed to work so, so switched back to country and was an instant success.

In 1967, she joined The Porter Wagoner Show, a TV show hosted by the Grand Ole Opry star, which made her a star.

Her first No1 solo hit, Joshua, was was in 1971 and two years later she wrote mega-hits Jolene and I Will Always Love You in one sitting.

Both crossed out of the country backwater into mainstream success.

She was no pushover as a petite woman in a business dominated by men.

She said: “I always knew how to manoeuvre in a crowd of men.

“I never slept with anybody to get ahead, because to me it wouldn’t be worth it.

“That don’t usually work in the long haul either.

“There was harassment but I always knew how to put a man in his place without making him feel bad.

“If sometimes that don’t work, I’m also strong as a boy – I know how to push you off and get the hell away from you.”

She channeled all her experiences into the hit movie 9 to 5 for which she was nominated for best original song and a Golden Globe for actress in 1981.

Dolly and Dean tried for a family but it sadly never happened.

She told: “Baby, it just wasn’t meant to be. I could have adopted. I had a few little problems but it’s fine, that’s OK.”

Instead, she channelled her energies into making sure children around the world had the chance to read a book, a drive inspired by her illiterate father Robert Lee Parton.

Her Imagination Library sees books land on the doorsteps of one million children a month from Tennessee to Belfast and Bradford, a staggering 254 million in total.

She was also a ‘fairy godmother’ to Miley Cyrus, another country star who found fame at a young age.

She said: “I think Miley’s always been pretty much in control of her own self.

“She’s always done what she had to do – overcoming the Hannah Montana, ‘good girl’ thing…

“She might have overdone it a bit here and there but I will always defend Miley.

“It’s worked out so great, we stay close, and really I couldn’t be closer to her if she was my own child.”

Closer to home she founded Dollywood , a theme park near Pigeon Forge which, along with normal rides, also hosts music and food events and a museum dedicated to her life.

It is ranked the eighth best theme park in the world by Trip Advisor.

after 58 years of marriage hit her hard.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” she said announcing his death.

After a scare in October when her niece asked supporters to pray for her she released a video saying she was on the road to recovery.

She admitted: “I’ve got some problems, as I mentioned.

“Back when my husband Carl was very sick, that was for a long time, and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself, so I let a lot of things go that I should’ve been taking care of.

“So anyway, when I got around to it, the doctor said, we need to take care of this.

“We need to take care of that.

“I’m not ready to die yet.

“I don’t think God is through with me and I ain’t done working.

“So, I love you for caring, and keep praying for me,”

showed no signs of slowing down and continued working, performing and managing her myriad of interests until her death.

She said: “I’ve been writing since I was seven years old.

“I’ve always got something around to write on – chewing gum papers, napkins in a restaurant – I never know when an idea is going to hit me, and I do not like to lose them because usually they don’t come back.

“I’m sure I’ve lost so many great ideas because I didn’t have pen and paper.”

There was no way she was going to quietly leave the stage she dominated for so many years.

“I am never going to retire,” she said.

“I want to be remembered as somebody who took her work serious, but not herself.

“Someone who brought books to children all over the world.

“For the fact that I managed to make a living doing something I love to do.

“And as a caring, giving, working girl.”